Obama lays wreath at Hiroshima peace park on historic visit

May. 27, 2016 15:00

U.S. President Barack Obama lays a wreath at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western, Japan, Friday, May 27, 2016. Obama on Friday became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world's first atomic bomb attack, bringing global attention both to survivors and to his unfulfilled vision of a world without nuclear weapons. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

HIROSHIMA, Japan: Barack Obama, the first incumbent U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, laid a wreath at the site of the world’s first atomic bombing on Friday, a symbolic gesture that Tokyo and Washington hope will highlight their alliance and breathe life into efforts to abolish nuclear arms.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killed thousands of people instantly and some 140,000 by the year’s end. The city of Nagasaki was hit by a second bomb on Aug. 9, 1945 and Japan surrendered three days later.

A majority of Americans see the bombings as having been necessary to end the war and save lives. Most Japanese believe they were unjustified.